Greg Rudd wrote:
Peter Wiley wrote:
You're about 3 weeks too late - I arranged for a friend of mine to buy
a quite nice used vert mill off of Hare & Forbes for $1500. We had to
do a little work on it and buy a single phase-3 phase VFD but his total
investment is still less than $2500 for quite a nice machine.

Don't be in too much of a rush would be my advice, plus look at 3 phase
machines.

PDW

I am quite happy to wait out untill aug. ( Tax return time ;-) ) I went
to Emmco earlier today and nothing there took my fancy. As to the
Holbrook lathe thats another story. Yeah I was talking to my dad who is
a retired fitter he sort of agreed. However I have been told that you
can get variable speed controllers to get the speed lower

If you fit a 3 phase motor you can fit a speed controller. Dunno about
a single phase one, never bothered thinking about it. However, you will
lose torque which you need for the bigger cutter and the belt will lose
grip efficiency. Been there, done that with a B/port M head mill. I
retrofitted a J head to get the speed range I wanted. That said I got a
lot of use out of the M head for many years......

As to that I
don't know what the long term effect would bo on the motor. I have sort
of gathered that Hare and Forbes are getting out of the second hand
market.

Yes, they are.

But If you hear anything please let me know as that is a nice
price. As a matter of interest what did you have to do to this
machine.

Not a lot. The table was binding on the LH end of the travel. I thought
it was probably worn along the rest of its travel, as did the sales
guy. The new owner stripped it down and found that the nut was too high
causing binding on the feedscrew. Made a new nut but could have
machined the original one. The ways etc were in excellent condn. This
was a Kao Fong machine made in 1978, 3 phase 2 speed motor with
separate power feed to table. Quite a respectable machine in very good
condition both cosmetically and function. It was seriously cheap for
Hare & Forbes, due I expect to the table binding.

We also bought a couple 240V single to 240V 3 phase VFD's and changed
the motor wiring to suit. The VFD's are available from Melbourne
Machinery for $300 + GST IIRC. I've got a 415 one here at work we're
fitting to a lathe. Teco brand I think.

Dunno if they're still in business - I'm in Hobart these days - but ACY
Machinery occasionally had some 2nd hand stuff and Centurion Machinery
had a lot. Mainly industrial so possibly too big for you, but you never
know.

The Holbrook lathe is something he didn't have last time I passed thru.
Richard has sold his Emco Maximat 11 now and keeps asking me when I'm
going to sell him mine - mine's a metric machine. Not until I'm ready
to buy a sailboat is the answer...... I don't need the lathe (I have a
Colchester Chipmaster), but I don't need the money yet either.

PDW




Decisions Decisions. I went to Centurion at Alburn and they had an old
sajo universal mill which looked ok. Nice and heavy though. And then
you have the HM 52 from H&F while a lighter machine is around simmilar
cost and is new!! However what put me off is seeing 2 hm 50's out the
back for sale in the second hand section with writing on their tables
saying how much they are out by. If I buy from H&F what is their after
sales service like if something like that is a problem.

In article .com,
Greg Rudd wrote:

Decisions Decisions. I went to Centurion at Alburn and they had an old
sajo universal mill which looked ok. Nice and heavy though.

If you can move it where you want it, heavy is an advantage not a
drawback.

And then
you have the HM 52 from H&F while a lighter machine is around simmilar
cost and is new!! However what put me off is seeing 2 hm 50's out the
back for sale in the second hand section with writing on their tables
saying how much they are out by. If I buy from H&F what is their after
sales service like if something like that is a problem.

Dunno. I was looking at a couple of 2nd hand wood planers out the back.
The sales rep advised me not to buy one as I was too far away nowadays,
and he said I'd likely not be happy with the accuracy even if I did
rebuild some of the crappy bits. I took his advice.

For you, the question comes down to, do you want to spend time
rebuilding a machine, or do you want to cut metal for your projects.
Unless one of those reject machines was really cheap, and you had the
time, tools & inclination to rectify the probs (or was prepared to live
with them) I'd forget it.

As for the new ones, couple options. Get a written accuracy std off of
them, and either have the machine checked *before* taking it home, or
be prepared to send it back if it isn't up to std. Preferably check it
first, that way it's on their floor & still their problem.

Having said that H&F have been in business for a while now and I've
never had any probs dealing with them.

Comparing the price of new machinery with used is a waste of time IMO.
We have Deckel mills in the shop here at work that are 30 years old.
They're still worth more than $20K AUD, easily. Age has nothing to do
with it, it's all how much wear a machine has accumulated over its
life.

PDW